


Spiced Fluffy Florentine Artista

by Tinamour



Category: Da Vinci's Demons
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, I tried to make this less cliché, M/M, Zo is a great friend as always
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-04
Updated: 2017-02-04
Packaged: 2018-09-22 01:37:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9576071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tinamour/pseuds/Tinamour
Summary: Leo spends his days at Clarice's coffee shop, looking for inspiration. And inspiration might just have walked through the door.





	

“Would you please move your ass? Clarice is gonna kill me if you don’t leave or order something else.”

Leo raised his head from the napkin he was doodling on and cracked his best friend a huge smile.

“Why would she? She loves us both too much!” Leo waved his hand at the manager, who was staring at them from behind the curtains of her small office.  
“Seriously, Leo,” Zo said with a sigh, “order something or I’ll lose my goddamn job.”

“How about another painting she can hang in her office?” Leo asked, blatantly ignoring his friend and still looking at the manager.

“She hung the last one in the toilets,” Zo muttered under his breath.

Clarice Orsini rolled her eyes up to heaven and drew the curtains shut. Leo just shrugged and returned to his drawings.

“For fuck’s sake!” Zo muttered once more.

“Could you bring me a coffee?” Leo asked as Zo turned around to take his place back behind the counter.

“Only if you pay for it first.”

“You still owe me five bucks from that game night at Amerigo’s.”

Zo considered his best friend for a moment before sighing loudly enough to startle the customers seated at the table side by side to Leo’s.

“And stop grinning, you damn idiot!” Zo yelled as he went back behind the counter.

One hour later, the table was covered in napkins and sheets of paper, one half of them crumpled. Leo had been persuaded to stop littering his drawings on the floor, which had resulted in him claiming the biggest table at the coffee shop as his own and spreading his work over it as far as he could.

The door opened, the annoying little bells Clarice had placed on it ringing.

The footsteps of the new customer were soft, yet confident. Leo’s head jerked upwards.

He saw the back of the man as he waited at the counter, looking at the card.

“You should try the Spiced Fluffy Florentine Artista.”

The man turned around slowly. He didn’t even seem surprised. Or he was very good at hiding it. Zo, on the other hand, was cackling madly behind his hand.

“The Spiced Fluffy Florentine Artista,” Leo repeated, “Double Espresso, whipped cream, caramel syrup and a pinch of cinnamon.” As he explained, he was toying with his pencil in a way he realized might have been too suggestive once he noticed the man’s eyes focused on his fingers.

That, or he had a hand kink. Vanessa always told Leo he had attractive hands.

The stranger’s hands, concealed in dark leather gloves, were nice to look at too. Leo couldn’t help but stare as the man took off one glove, revealing long fingers, which flexed before resting on the strap of his bag.

“Why not?” he said, with a shrug and a nod to Zo, who quickly disappeared behind the counter.

The man looked around him, studying his surroundings like a lord his domain. He turned his head, and the sight stung Leo like a bee.

He leaned back on his notebook and drew. The man’s sharp jaw, his hawk nose, the spark of tranquil assurance in his eyes…It took Leo only three attempts to catch a satisfying glimpse of what he had seen, and by the time he was done, the man had seated down at a nearby table, typing on the keyboard of a shiny new laptop.

“Too fancy for you, I’m afraid,” Zo whispered when he came to take Leo’s cups away.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Sure, you don’t. Either stop staring or go talk to him before he starts to notice something,” Zo added with a clap on his friend’s back.

Leo’s eyes focused on the man, who was tasting his drink. The look on the stranger’s face made Leo chuckle quietly.

Leaving his table – no-one would dare touch his drawings, not after what had happened last time – Leo slipped into the seat in front of the man, giving him his best smile.

“It’s better with my secret ingredient.”

Brown eyes stared at him with a polite interest. Leo’s heart speeded up in his chest. He took a flask from his pocket and was about to drop some of its content in the nearly-overflowing mug when a low voice stopped him: “What is it?”

“Rum. The best you’ll find in town,” Leo explained, smiling and looking for some kind of approval in the dark eyes that now studied him with attention.

Long fingers pushed the cup towards Leo. He tried to focus on the whipped cream as he let a splash of liquid fall into the mug. If he looked at the politely inquisitive and calm brown eyes that were staring at his hand, he would spill the rum all over the table.

As the man tasted the improved drink, Leo pondered his next sentence. “Come here often?” was awfully common. And Leo hated nothing more than to be seen as common. The plans he noticed from the corner of his eyes gave him another idea.

“Architect?”

“No. I have to review those plans and make sure they are really worth what they say.”

“So, an accountant.”

“In a way.” Leo felt like if the man’s polite and tight smile was hiding something else. Leo drew closer to the plans.

“I don’t know who sent you this, but they most surely want the whole thing to crumble under you.”

“How so?” The man’s cocked eyebrow indicated that Leo had won his interest for another minute.

“The terrain you want to build upon is surrounded by swamps.” Leo’s fingers trailed the map as he spoke. “You’ll either need to account for drainage and water purification in your prize, or see it fail.”

“Why should I believe you?”

“You don’t have to. But you could check into it and make up your own mind about the matter.”

The man gave him another look before his fingers typed quickly on his laptop, his face going from utter disbelief to a deep rage.

“I can’t believe…” he said behind clenched teeth. “But of course, they want me to fail.”

Leo suddenly felt sick. And also hoped he hadn’t messed things up too much.

In front of him, the man was dialling a number on his phone while struggling to put all his stuff back in his bag. Leo earned himself a tight yet genuine smile when he gave a hand.

“Thank you for your input, Mister?”

“Da Vinci. Leonardo Da Vinci.”

“Girolamo Riario. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

And just like that, he disappeared into the darkening streets, Clarice’s stupid little bells ringing in his wake.

////

One week later, Leo was working at the same table – Clarice’s husband had seen his painting in the café and had asked for one to hang in his office. Inspiration wasn’t kicking in, sadly. And Leo needed the money.

He didn’t even notice the bells, the footsteps, the quiet mutter at the counter. He barely even noticed the cup pushed towards him before it was under his nose.

“You were right.”

Leo tried to hide his smile. “What did you find out?”

“I made enquiries about a better terrain. It is more expensive, but the company will be closer to major railways and highways. And I checked it myself: no swamps.”

“Here’s to that!”

The man – Riario – ‘s smile seemed somehow larger. And more relaxed. He waited before Leo tipped some rum in both mugs before drinking.

“So, what brings you back here?” Leo asked.

Riario’s eyes focused on the wall behind them then back on Leo. “I wanted to taste that…What do you call it?”

Leo chuckled: “A Spiced Fluffy Florentine Artista”

The brown eyes softened, and Leo felt a tiny ball of warmth sparking in his belly.

“Yes. That. I missed the taste.”

Something in Riario’s eyes shifted, and Leo’s smile widened. If he had any say in it, that evening was going to be the start of a great friendship. Or something more, if he was lucky.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a commission from hiykyt on Tumblr. Thanks again for trusting me with that :p
> 
> And thank you sooo much to meridianrose for the beta-reading!


End file.
